Ben B

"The Signalman", it was filmed on the SVR in the approach cutting to the tunnel between Kiddy and Bewdley. A rather nice, prop-built signalbox from what I've read.

Is Fairbourne Station on the Cambrian Coast below sea level? I gather a lot of the village is, though I have hazy memories from childhood camping trips that the mainline might be on an embankment. The miniature railway station though must be at or below sea level. .

I found some pics, mostly from a few years back, of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway class 08's. The occasion was to celebrate the arrival and restoration of the ex-Burry Port cut-height 08933 "Ashburnham". For a line which puts so much effort into their general 50's look with the steam locos, passenger stock and stations, it's great that they have so many contemporary liveries on the diesel fleet; I didn't expect the cut-cab class 08 to appear in EWS livery, that's for certain! The older, full-height 08 also got a repaint, into grey for the occasion. The two spent a day trundling up and down the valley, though for a variety of reasons (mainly mechanical) these two locomotives haven't done a passenger timetable since. In fact, I can think of only one occasion where 08993 has run a full-line diagram, and that was a snow/ice clearing run a couple of years ago, light-engine. From what I understand both locomotives have mechanical issues which limit them to yard duties, but then again the KWVR have bigger locomotives like "Vulcan" that can match mainline speeds and fit in with the normal daily timetables. The contrast in the differing heights is pretty clear here. It's nice that the cut-cab loco survived into presentation, and keeps up the KWVR tradition of preserving oddball locomotives. A couple of more recent shots (last spring) with 08993 in it's normal habitat, as yard pilot at Haworth shed.

An interesting one... I'd have hoped that priority postage would be marked, and prioritised clearly. I'd hate to think that me getting a toy train means the box of facemasks for the local A&E is left at the depot, but I'd hope the system would be a bit more organised. My biggest concern is financial; I'd absolutely love to order a few bits and pieces for model-making, but my wife works in a school as a technician, I'm a foster carer (as well as a freelance photographer).... neither of us have received any guarantee about wages, and so we're twitchy about spending any money in case our income just stops, because we damned well know the bills won't... Right now my railway modelling is an excuse in using up what I've got, and sacrificing some stuff for the kids to build/use/play with.

Medal of Honor was my introduction to PS1 games; my best mate at Secondary had a PlayStation and I played a couple of levels and decided I wanted my own copy as soon as possible. My 15th Birthday, money and savings got me one of the first slimline Ps1's with Medal of Honor and a warplane game called "Eagle One: Harrier Attack" in a special offer from Electronics Boutique (remember them?). The first two Medal of Honor games (the original and "Underground") remain two of my favourite games ever, and the multiplayer mode was always fun. I decided to let my foster-kids play it too last year (it's nice knowing they can multiplay on something where there isn't a risk of them accidentally buying upgrades because the console is permanently online- God Bless the basic but reliable early playstations built in the pre-internet age). Elder Child gives me a good run for my money on the multiplayer now. One odd thing to look back on now is getting the PS1 chipped -completely illegal of course- so it could play copied games. Cannot remember now who did it for me, but I can remember walking home in the afternoons from school (three miles!) so I could save the bus fare and buy copied games off a mate who did a roaring trade in them. Not that the coppers cared; when his house got burgled, the police officers reportedly ignored the stacks of copies, but for the dozen or so they helped themselves to

My parents said they were in Lidl, Netherton yesterday, and it had been cleared out of a lot of stuff following that delightfully reassuring speech by the PM about how we're all going to lose lots of our loved ones (but don't panic, blitz spirit and all that, fwah etc). The cashier said they'd stopped a woman who'd filled her trolly with ALL of the pasta in the shop; when questioned, she snapped that because travel to Italy was closed, no more pasta would be coming out of the country so she was getting in as much as possible. The staff tried to point out that they don't get their pasta from Italy, but from elsewhere, but to no avail as she just wouldn't listen... The best explanation I've heard for the loo roll shortage so far is 'one person sneezes, a hundred people around him crap themselves'

I'm wondering if someone at Rockstar Games is a closet railway enthusiast, having been replaying GTA Vice City... I'd forgotten that there's a derelict narrow gauge line on the docks near the scrapyard, inset track and all. The other games have railway lines too; the elevated railway and subways in Liberty City of course in GTA 3 and the later titles, and the railway in San Andreas with regular passenger and freight trains. But there are other derelict railways in those too- in Liberty City the tunnel from the port to 8-Ball's Yard, and loads in some of the later Liberty City-set games.

I've been rediscovering the joys of Grand Theft Auto; Vice City. Sometimes you just need to race around in a Lambourgini listening to Blondie

I remember that layout from a 90's issue of BRM... I must have been about 10, I can remember reading it on a train whilst sat at New Street. Even then I appreciated what an atmospheric layout it was, and I loved the industrial, light-railway look of it.

My first layout was built for me, in conditions of great secrecy, as a Christmas present when I was three. Plan 2/6 from the Sixth edition of the Hornby trackplan booklet (as used my my parents to plan the build, and which I still have!) 6x4 sheet of unframed, unsupported chipboard. Lovely textured surface, road for driving toy cars, and a selection of buildings made and painted by my mum; all Airfix/Dapol kits, most of which I still have as well. This is the only photograph I have of the layout, which is surprising considering how much I loved playing with it. Stock was a selection of the early Hornby Thomas range, with my dads vintage Triang DMU (which made a passable, if faceless, Daisy) supplemented later by my first 'proper' loco, a Hornby spamcan ("Fighter Pilot"). The board rested against my bedroom wall, and was laid on the floor to be played with. It saw less use when some new bedroom furniture meant it could only be laid-out in the dining room (and thus needed shifting downstairs), and it was gradually replaced with interests in N gauge from when I was about 11. Considering it was unbraced, it survived all the lifting and moving around very well though, and two house moves, before it gave up the ghost. When the board finally succumbed to warping, I stripped the track off it and put everything I could salvage into storage. Felt a bit bad, but the majority of the trackwork has since been recycled onto my Foster Daughters first layout, so what comes around, goes around. In a way it lives on though; I needed a test-track for reviving some N models, and had some set-track; once I'd planned to nail it down to a board anyway, I decided to use it as an opportunity to recreate as faithfully as possible that first layout, in N- even down to the foam underlay and an attempt at replicating the textured surface

I've been reading through the blog posts on this layout- I think as soon as I'd seen the layout in the RM, I'd found it one of the most unique and fascinating bits of modelling I'd ever seen! So nice to be able to see all the extra details and things that weren't in the article. This railbus in particular is an excellent little build; I really love the retro-feel of kitbashing the venerable Airfix/Dapol railbus for this project. Do the pickup modifications make a significant difference? I've got a Model Power loco of similar provenance on one side for a similar build (but to use a Triang DMU body for the railbus), but it ran like a pig. I'd been planning on using an even more ancient Fleischmann shunter chassis instead but it seems a bit of a waste to just use the latter on a railbus, so I'm thinking based on your experiences I might need to do something similar with the MP chassis...

I've been going through this again- the whole thread makes for a fascinating read. What struck me this time was how so many of the illustrations were based on existing Triang models! I'd not really appreciated that before, but I suppose it's logical for the illustrators to have something to hand which could be posed and moved to get the right angles. At the risk of thread-drift, something similar is visible in the animated (and wonderful, horrible, haunting) part-animated, part-3D modelled "When the Wind Blows" from the 1980's. There's a scene when The Bomb drops, and amidst all the destruction a train is seen being blown off a viaduct... it kept bothering me why it looked familiar, and after re-watching tonight (following reading this thread) I'm now pretty sure it's because the loco is a Hornby class 37- in the special features on the DVD you can see a whole load of model cars on the animators desk, so it would make sense if they used a readily-available model off the shelf to draw from. Thread drift over- really looking forward to seeing how this layout progresses (I'm a narrow gauge enthusiast too, so equally excited to see the new developments).

It's a pity, but understandable I suppose given that it's not used anymore. At least there are plenty of photographs and films of it in use. I'm always surprised to still see bits of street-running railways surviving around the world, particularly in the car-worshiping USA where there's films on YouTube and the like of massive freight trains rumbling down suburban streets. I cannot imagine Britain going in for that sort of street-running ever again, barring the short bit of the Welsh Highland which I suspect is the only such bit left in the UK? I don't think there are any dock lines or similar left with street running are there?

Yeah, but I've seen people get caught out like that on the Cambrian Coast, which in places has rusty rails and tracks covered in greenery and drifting sands, and neglected-looking bridges. I had a right row with a tourist fisherman about 8 years ago when I was waiting to photograph a train, and he climbed a fence to stroll over a bridge. Wouldn't believe me it was an open line...

It's a shame it's closing; I remember the big WHS in Dudley closing in favour of the 'nearby' Merry Hill branch...

Am I right in thinking that the shunting at Round Oak nowadays is just carried out by the train loco, the Sheds and 60's? I remember reading in one of the books by Ned Williams ("The Railways of Dudley" I think) that a few of the old YEC DE2 shunters from the larger steelworks/Pensnett Railway were used in the early years on the site when it downscaled just to the smaller operation. I'm guessing they must have given up the ghost fairly quickly to be replaced by the Brush and the Sentinel. Always thought it was a shame the Black Country Museum didn't pick one up for display, though I gather they've tended to be a bit anti-railway at the museum in the past.

I think I've seen some photographs of them both together, in a book on diesel shunters; externally seemed to be identical. They both carried a rather striking black livery with red/orange go faster stripe when new. "Vulcan" has been somewhat more technicolour in preservation, until it's present more sombre BR green, which I don't think it ever carried in service. Not the best shot of "Vulcan" I've ever taken, but to be fair, it was sleeting quite spectacularly this lunchtime when it went past me

It could just be coincidence of course, "Vulcan" is the go-to diesel loco on the KWVR, and tends to be active most days, especially during the midweek winter period when the line is shut. Case in point, it trundled past my house earlier, moving the visiting GWR Prairie that's up for the Gala. I'm sure it will be out and about on the engineering trains tomorrow too. That said, I would love to see a model of Vulcan in the Railroad range- it would make a good use of the existing 0-6-0 chassis, has carried a few prototypical liveries, and would no doubt look good in some freelance ones too! I'd certainly buy a couple

Have you seen the preserved example at the Middleton in Leeds? Running in MDHB livery, it's a regular performer, and very nicely turned-out.

I recently re-watched the recent version of the Chronicles of Narnia, the Lion the Witch and the Warderobe. Some good railway scenes at the start, but it did highlight a minor annoyance with a lack of attention to detail; why have the loco in the wrong livery? I know most viewers wouldn't spot it or care, but if you've gone to the trouble of using GWR stock for a train of evacuees, and you're CGI-ing Kidderminster to look like Paddington, then getting great sweeping aerial views of the train thundering up the Severn Valley, why have the loco in BR livery? OK you cannot repaint just for a few scenes, but it's two variations on the theme of 'green loco' so surely even a bit of dark green paper glued-on over the tender sides would do the trick. It happened again in the 2016 remake of "Swallows and Amazons", with some great location filming on the KWVR and cgi-ing of the train hauled by their 4F to make it look like they're travelling to the Lake District (including over the nearby to Keighley -and in reality abandoned- GNR viaduct near Cullingworth), but the loco is still in BR livery. I don't know if it's the TV company and the railway suggest, but get overridden, or what. When "All Creatures Great and Small" were filming on the KWVR last year, they temporarily re-liveried the 4F in LMS colours just by sticking some letters on the tender and covering up a digit on the number, so I can only assume it's the production company insisting it's not an important detail.

Old thread I know, but I ended up re-watching this recently. The tone of the whole thing was a bit of an adjustment, being darker and more moody, though I quite liked it. The train scenes were annoying though... The bit which is probably meant to be Copenhagen Fields is actually in Leeds, you see it on the way in to the station from the south; it's the long-abandoned viaduct into what was the old Leeds Central Station; the ground in front of it, where the action takes place, is bare and about to be built on. The CGI bit in the East End at the start worked for me (even if it did look more West Riding, like the old GNR out of Halifax), and I thought they did a good bit of selective camera work in Saltaire (portraying Andover) to miss out the overhead wiring on the adjacent Airedale line. Though some odd choices, it looks pretty enough around Embsay so I wasn't sure why they needed to insert a shot of Knaresborough, but hey-ho. It did strike me that a bit of location filming on one of the preserved railways involved (KWVR, NYMR, E&B) would have nailed the scenes which involved so much CGI. Must be easier to pay for some overworked 20 year olds to get eye-strain in a computer room for six months, than build some fake colour-light signals and have the actors running around Grosmont or Keighley for an afternoon... Oddly enough what came to mind was the episode of "Ripper Street" with the train crash; yes, the trains were a little wrong for the setting, but real trains and actors had been filmed, and the backdrops were inserted with CGI around the real locations on the Great Central, which meant the final outcome was quite believable to look at.

Do Hornby have access to any TT track or similar (or even chassis and locomotives) through any of their foreign model companies? I know they own the likes of Arnold etc, and with TT being more popular in Europe I just wondered. I suppose the old Hornby/Triang TT molds went to the scrappers many years ago, which would be a shame, though I don't suppose aside from the nostalgia angle the modern modeller would be interested much in what are basically toys by todays standards.

Thanks for the kind comment- I've also only once seen a Yellow Peril on the line, it was when the line was shut for ages a few years ago after storm damage, and I chanced on one unexpectedly parked-up at Porthmadog Station after it had made a test run. Found some more pics... a visit to Embsay last year, just before the summer, to see the very impressive NER unit...

This makes for interesting reading... I've been wading through from the start, over the last hour or two, and it's clear there are a lot of issues at play, as well as concerns for the future of the railways. Apologies in advance if this goes on a bit and turns into a bit of an essay! What I've been thinking about, reading all this is; what exact function do preserved railways fulfil nowadays? What function will they be forced to fulfil in a changing world? When the likes of the Bluebell or the Tallylyn or SVR were first preserved, they were just that; preservation schemes. I might ruffle feathers here, because I wasn't there in the 60's (I'm in my mid-30's) and so apologise if I've got this wrong, but I get the impression that these were schemes set up to preserve something that was being lost, done so by people who were afraid that something they knew and loved was at risk of disappearing forever. In many ways and attitudes, I think it's human nature to be something of a backwards-looking people, and struggle with accepting and implementing change a lot of the time... so in an age of rocket ships, atomic power stations, fast diesel trains, delta-winged supersonic aircraft and 6-lane motorways, the steam tank locomotive and four-wheeled wooden carriage was an anachronism, and would vanish withoutout the love and support of a dedicated preservationist- but for the right people in the right place at the right time, there was something comforting about it, and they felt it needed saving for a wider society who'd come around to appreciating it when the novelty of the flash new technology had worn off. I also think it's why every local council still has museums chocked-full of old paintings, boxes, bits of machinery, and so on- it's important to realise how we got to now, acknowledging the things from then that got us here, if that makes sense. I suppose there's also an element of 'future shock', of clinging to old certainties in a rapidly-changing and disorientating world. But a railway isn't like all that other stuff, you can't just leave it all in a cabinet in a big old gothic building in the town square, and pay someone to dust it twice a year. What do you do when you've preserved a railway? It can't just sit there static, it has a function, and it's worth in being preserved means it needs to fulfill that function, else we just as well make do with "Rocket" or "Mallard" stuffed and mounted in a museum, and damn the rest. So it needs passengers to fulfil that function, and needs lots of them to pay the bills. The further on in time things get though from those early days, the fewer people remember them 'in service'. So the railway becomes a tourist attraction rather than a historic recreation- this is the sort of thing I grew up with, the Severn Valley and Ffestiniog of the 80's-90's. Thomas-branded everything in the gift shops, GWR panniers or maroon diesels on LNER teaks- not really accurate heritage preservation perhaps, but a business trying to provide a fun day out for the changing demographic of visitors, and not a bad thing either- the bills have to be paid, and that means it keeps existing. You need to shift hundreds of people per train, and can't do it with a clapped-out Edwardian tank loco with two carriages twice a day on overgrown track, even if that is more accurate to the history of the place. Now? I'm a foster-father of three whose kids are at least young enough to not automatically rebel at the idea of a trip to a museum or a railway, and a trip to a railway is thus a big day out. And much as I love railways, I find I don't really want a perfect historical recreation of the 1930's; the most important things to consider (beyond the considerable cost factor, and making sure you can sit down together as a family) are; a) are there enough trains to make a day out practical? It's not fun finding a three-hour gap at a terminus in a field, near a village with no shops. b) is it short enough a ride to not bore the kids c) are there decent lavatories (you've not experienced hell until you've a squirming toddler with a full nappy, and are trying to find a gents loo with a changing table. Seems to have taken a while for the heritage sector in general to work out that men and not just women might need to deal with that sort of thing) d) is there a café for at least a brew break, e) is there a gift shop, because all kids want to buy something, and f) is there a playground, because there's only so long you can keep an energetic 8-year old penned up on a train. The above probably makes me typical of many visitors to preserved railways, or more accurately 'heritage railways' today. So is that what the railway is now? A day-out venue rather along the lines of a theme-park or other attraction? I know that was a discussion causing much debate even fifteen years ago, and seems especially relevant now. So given that, does the heritage railway still serve a purpose in educating people about the past, and from the education standpoint, what is the future there? This is something I've seen and heard talked about a lot in recent years, considered important as generations move further and further on from the industrialised society that birthed all this technology and which still existed when the majority of railways were saved in the 60's-70's. But I speak here from experience of the drastic cuts in school budgets, and the target-driven culture existing in most schools now. How many schools can afford a trip out to the local preserved railway for a ride? Is that trip the easiest, quickest way of getting a class-full of kids to hit their target grade? Will it be cheaper to just tell them to google 'steam trains in Britain' than go out to the nearest railway for a day? And other people on this thread have already mentioned about kids not coming out of school with technical abilities and skills... God knows I sympathise, but it isn't generally the fault of the schools or for lack of enthusiasm by the kids- I was a school DT technician; our department was 'downsized' and classes cut, seemingly because it's harder to quantify a grade, and thus hit a target, for something practical like woodwork compared to a right/wrong answer on a maths question paper. On top of which you have to fund an inconveniently large suite of classrooms full of machinery and materials, and a load of staff who need specialist training to operate it all. Hell, the school my wife works at can barely afford an art department, with no machinery or specialised equipment, nor can the one my eldest is at, so it isn't a rare phenomenon. It all adds up in a time of chopped budgets. So as the practical sort of subject fades from prominence, does it become more important to preserve and explain those skills on a railway, or will the lack of education in that field mean there just isn't the demand to learn about it? If a 16-year old doesn't get to learn about welding at school, will they give a damn seeing it demonstrated by some middle-aged bloke in a cold engine shed? Or just consider it some fossilised skill which belonged to their Grandparents' generation. So what of the future? A lot of people are discussing about the reduction in coal, and the effect it will have on the heritage sector. If you believe in climate change or not (that's not a debate for here), regardless Government policy is now to reduce coal and fossil fuel consumption, and frankly a comparative handful of railway enthusiasts aren't going to force a return to coal mining as national policy, even on a tiny scale. In what direction will the railways adapt? If there isn't the coal to run steam trains anymore, what will they do? Will the day-tripping public indulging in some loose sense of 'nostalgia' be content to pay £50 to ride behind an ex-Northern DMU? To end (finally!) on a more positive thought... If less people are driving because petrol supplies fall and the majority of the general public cannot afford electric cars with decent range (which looks to me like the most likely case in a decade), might more people be forced onto railways? And assuming (it's depressingly a big assumption) that the Government of the time consequently decides to throw more money at public transport, how many of the current preserved lines might find themselves re-absorbed into the national network, or subsidised to run a proper public service? I wonder how many heritage societies will be seen as valued, temporary custodians of these routes- it was a working railway for a hundred years, then the KWVR or SVR kept the infrastructure safe from 1960-2040, so there was something left to reopen when Britain really needed it in the future?

Found some more unit shots whilst hunting through my archives, so as the rain lashes the windows outside, here's some summer seaside pics from West Wales. Bloody ERTMS... some of the most beautiful scenery on the Cambrian Coast, with some of the blandest DMU's on the network I miss the days of the steam specials, and I never seem to be visiting when the yellow 37's trundle up from Shrewsbury... Criccieth, 2015. I gather this bit is buried under shingle at the moment. Barmouth, last April. Weird lighting on the day, but I liked how it came out. The bridge didn't half wobble as the train rolled past. Criccieth again, evening of the same day; the height of excitement on the Cambrian Coast these days, spotting a slightly unusual livery amongst the Arriva colour scheme. Probably swapped around this year, I'll be excited to see Arriva amongst all the bland TFW white/black/red... And last summer at Harlech... ...an angle I always wanted to try. Would have loved a shot off the battlements, but it was extremely windy up there and it wasn't safe with the foster kids hanging desperately onto the railings. Hopefully on one of our regular visits this year I can get the holy trio of Yellow 37, sun, and blue sky...